Letter from Father Kinerk
September 2005

Dear Friend of Rockhurst:
I am writing to give you an update on Rockhurst University. In late August Rockhurst welcomed one of its largest freshman classes in its history, as 370 freshmen joined 110 transfer students to swell our enrollment. This is the third large increase in the past three years. We have gone from 214 to 244 to 306 and now to 370.
Furthermore, the academic qualifications of our classes have also improved. The average ACT score of our new freshmen class is 25 (a 25 places a student in the top 18% of college bound seniors.)

Shortly after school began we watched with horror the tragedy in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast. Like you, Rockhurst has tried to respond. We have accepted, at no cost, 27 students from New Orleans colleges and universities. The largest number came from our sister Jesuit school, Loyola University New Orleans, but we have also received students from Tulane, Xavier and Dillard. In addition, Rockhurst students have collected clothing, blankets, money and water. Some of these materials have already gone south through the good work of several of our Regents. Rockhurst has also offered three of our rental houses for the use of evacuees at no charge.

The increase in numbers has brought parking to the fore again. We have just opened a temporary lot south of the campus for about 40 cars. We are also opening a lot on Troost on the site the old Jimmy’s restaurant. This will add about 48 spaces. Finally, we are planning to expand the parking in front of one of the residence halls. This expansion hit a snag last summer when exceptional costs put the project on hold.

We continue to raise money for the recreation/wellness center. A series of luncheons has brought many supporters on campus to hear about Rockhurst and to listen to our appeal for help. To date we have raised a little over $3.5 million.

On a more personal note, I want to tell you that this will be my final year at Rockhurst. It is a tremendous privilege to serve as president of the university I attended, and I cherish the relationships I have made both on campus and with each of you. Improvement in facilities and enrollment, and a strengthening of our sense of mission and identity have positioned Rockhurst for a very positive future; a new president will bring talents and insight to guide our growth. I have been at Rockhurst for eight years and I will be nearly 63 by the end of this academic year. No, I am not ready to retire but I believe that I should take on something new now while I still have the “youth” and energy to do so. I will continue at Rockhurst until June of 2006. Following that, I expect to take a sabbatical, after which I will receive a new assignment from the Jesuit Provincial.

I informed the Board of Trustees of my decision at our September 24 meeting. The board is responsible for finding my successor and has established a search committee headed by Mr. Clyde Wendel, Vice Chair of the Rockhurst Board and President, Kansas City Region of Bank of America.

Thank you for all that you do for Rockhurst.
Edward Kinerk, S.J.President

U.S. News & World Report has ranked Rockhurst University No. 14 in the Midwest Best Universities — Master's category in its 2006 rankings released in August. The rankings are part of the magazine's annual “America's Best Colleges” issue and accompanying guidebook.

The magazine bases its rankings on a number of criteria including peer assessments, freshman retention rate, graduation rate, faculty resources, class sizes, student/faculty ratio, student selectivity, acceptance rate, financial resources and alumni giving rate.

Institutions in the Best Universities — Master's category provide a full range of undergraduate and master's programs, but offer few, if any, doctoral programs. Both public and private colleges are included. More than 175 master's institutions are included in the Midwest region. Find out more from U.S. News online.

"This ranking is one more validation of the exceptional quality of the Rockhurst experience. Our 2005 freshman class is 20 percent larger than last year, and is one of the strongest academically in many years," said the Rev. Edward Kinerk, S.J., president of Rockhurst University.
Rockhurst has been ranked consistently as one of the top 15 universities in the Midwest by U.S. News & World Report. It also has been listed in Barron's Best Buys in College Education, Peterson's Competitive Colleges and Money magazine. In 2003, the Carnegie Foundation designated Rockhurst as a national leadership site for the scholarship of teaching and learning. Rockhurst is one of only a handful of universities in the nation to earn this distinction.
"We encourage students to look at these rankings as part of a holistic approach in their college selection. There are many aspects of a Rockhurst education that cannot be measured in these rankings, such as our distinctive mission, which calls on us to develop each student as a whole person — intellectually and professionally, morally and spiritually," said Fr. Kinerk.

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays to all Rockhurst Executive Fellows Alumni and family.
This is our first e-mail communication since the election of the new Rockhurst Executive Fellows Alumni Board of Directors in August. Wow, how time flies.

My name is Dan LoIacono. As many of you may know, I am the new President of the association. Other board members include Don Jalbert, Steve Redmond, and Jami Henry.
Our deepest thanks goes out to Brad Sumner for his wonderful leadership as President in 2004-Thanks Brad!

We have solicited a good deal of feedback from our alumni regarding what they want and don't want from their alumni association. We have boiled it down as cleanly as possible into a few specific strategies for 2005/2006. Basically, we are hearing that most of us are very busy (big surprise). With the high demand on our time (family, business, community, church), it is challenging for us to squeeze more meetings or events into our schedules.

We hear this loud and clear. In fact we share the same challenges. One thing that I think is also clear however in talking to many of the alumni, is that we selected the Rockhurst Executive Fellows MBA program in part because of the relationships we expected to build through the program. These relationships are very important and as an Alumni Association one of our primary goals this year will be to re-establish a platform for us to maintain contact with each other. We intend to build a communication platform using Internet-based tools for those who may not have time to attend some of the scheduled social, networking or educational events sponsored by the alumni association.

Some of the initiatives we intend to kick off this year include:

Regularly Distributed Newsletter: This will help keep the benefits and opportunities associated with Rockhurst Executive Fellows Alumni Association fresh on our minds, and help us stay connected.

Refresh the Executive Fellows Website: This site should be a place for our members to connect with one another and stay informed on university activities or current events. We should be able to use this site to easily find alumni contact information on a personal and professional level. If I am looking for a website developer, my preference is to use a Rockhurst EF Alumni. Currently we do not have a way of easily referencing this valuable information.

Build our "paying dues" Alumni Membership: The perception of limited value coupled with no active membership dues collection system have contributed to a low level of alumni actually paying annual dues. The annual dues for the association is nominal at +/- $55.00. This helps us have the money to implement projects that will enable us make the association a valuable resource to stay in touch with fellow alumni. Lets work on this.

Together we can make the Executive Fellows Alumni Association an organization that allows us to leverage the talents of our graduates/members.

"Call to Action" How can you help?

Update Personal Profile- By clicking on the "Update Profile" link in this newsletter you will be re-directed to a web-based template that will allow you to update your contact information. It is important to us to have accurate contact information for all of our alumni to help keep us all connected. The process is simple and only takes about 2 minutes. Thanks for taking the time!

Website Developers- We will need to engage a website developer that can bring our site to a "best-in-class" level at an economical price. Sponsorship recognition is a perk of the project.

Featured Article Writers- You are invited to contribute an article for the newsletter for distribution. Each newsletter will have a featured article that should be written by an alum. This is a great opportunity to inform the members about a selected topic while providing exposure for your goods or services.

Annual Dues Payment- The annual dues ($55.00) helps us keep the alumni association moving ahead. In the past there has been some confusion regarding how to make payment. We will sending out a request for dues payment at the beginning of the year. This will have clear instructions regarding how to make your annual payment. Thanks for your continued support!

I hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday season!